Semisoft box toe for shoes



g- 26, 1930- w. H. BAYNARD SEMISOFT BOX TOE FOR SHOES Filed Nov. 18,1925 Patented Aug. 26, 1930 I i l I UNITED. STATES PATENT OFF ICEWILLIAM H. BAYNARD, 015 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNORTO HARRY H. BECK-WITH, BROOKLINE, MASSACHUSETTS SEMISOFT BOX TOE FOR SHOES Applicationfiled November 18, 1925. Serial No. 69,781.

Box toe stiffeners for shoes are now comagent, or when the stiffener isfirst treated monly formed of a fibrous base saturated with with rubberand then with the thermoplastic. a thermoplastic material, so that bythe ap- The rubber remaining in the skived central plication of a mildheat they may be softened portion of the stiffener which forms the roofpreparatory to the pulling over and lasting of the box increases thenatural springiness 65$ operations, but will be relatively hard and ofthe more flexible portion. stiff when at atmospheric temperature. For amore complete understanding of this It is some times desired, however,to proinvention, reference may be had to the acduce a flexible box whichit is evident would companying drawings in whichnot be produced by theuse of a stiffener such Figure 1 is a plan of a stiffener blank. to ashas been described. When the box is flexi- Figure 2 shows the same blankafter being ble throughout, however, it does not maintain skivedaccordin to this invention. its shape in use since the side walls areeasily Figures 3 an 4 are sections on lines 3-3 broken down. and 4-4,respectively, of Figure 2.

According to the present invention, there- Figure 5 is similar to aportion of each of fore, the stiffener is so constructed that whenFigures 3 and 4, but is drawn to an enlarged incorporated in the shoeits wall portions are scale. stiff and hard as in the usualthermoplasti- Figure 6 is a longitudinal section through rally stiffenedtoe, but in which its roof is the toe portion of a shoe having astiffener :0 relatively soft and flexible comparable in thisconstructedaccording to this invention.

respect to the flexible or soft box. In order Figure 7 is a section online 77 of Figto produce this result the amount of thermoure 6. 7

plastic material is caused to vary throughout A sheet of the foundationfibrous material the body of the stiffener, being in substantiis firstsaturated with a thermoplastic com ally the proportion relative to thebase of the pound and then is cut, as by dies, to. form usual hardstiffeners along that portion single sheet stiffener blanks as shown at1 in which forms the wall of the box and being Figure 1. This blank isthen skived, as

relatively much less over the remaining porshown in Figures 2, 3, 4 and5, to produce a tion. Preferably also the less stiffened centaperedmargin, as at 2 and 3, and a central 30 tral portion at least is treatedwith material portion of the surface is also removed over such as rubberto increase its springiness or that portion of the stiffener which whenin tendency to resume a normal position when use will form the roof ofthe box, this being pressed therefrom. indicated at 5 so as to leave thefull thickness lVhile it might be possible to apply the of the materialonly over an are shaped zone 35 thermoplastic material over that portionor portion 4 which extends about the more only of the stiffener which isto form the wall sharply curved end of the blank substantially of thebox. or more over that portion than parallel with its edge. When thefabric is elsewhere, a more convenient method comsaturated with thethermoplastic compound prises saturating'the sheet material over itsmore of this compound becomes deposited ad- 40 entire area and thenskiving the box toe jacent to the outer faces of the sheet, as indiblankcuttherefrom in such a manner as to cated by the more heavily shadedportions 10 remove some of the thermoplastic material and 11 of Figure5. During the skiving opover those portions which it is desired toeration the more heavily treated portion on render soft. This method isparticularly one side of the blank is removed, as shown 45 suitable ifrubber is incorporated in the clearly in Figure 5, so that not only isthe stiffener, as for example, according to the disblank made thinnerexcept over the portion closure of the application for patent of W. B. 4by the skiving treatment, but also a con- Pratt for Box toes, filed May25, 1925, Serial siderable amount of the thermoplastic mate- No. 32,576,in which the rubber is used as an rial is removed. Thus thearcuateportion 4 50 ingredient of the thermoplastic treating is of themaximum stiffness and rigidity while 1 the margins and the portionwithin the zone 4 is much poorer in thermoplastic material. If, however,rubber has been used either in a pretreatment or as a constituent of thestiffening agent, the rubber remaining in the central portion of theblank acts to render this portion springy and elastic so that if theroof of the finished box toe is deformed somewhat by pressure, it willimmediately spring back to proper shape when such pressure is released.

This blank is softened by heat in the usual manner and lasted into theshoe as shown in Figures 6 and 7, the skived marginal portions 2 aboutthe more sharply curved end of the blank being engaged by the inseamstitches (in the case 0 a welt shoe), the portion 5 forming the roof ofthe box. This roof portion when the stiffener has become set may bedeformed as by depressing it inwardly as shown by dotted lines inFigures 6 and 7, without however causing the side wall portions 4, whichare relatively stiff and hard, to yield or be broken down, and as soonas this pressure is removed the roof portion immediately returns to itsproper position. v

Having thus described an embodiment of this invention, it should beevident to those skilled in the art that various changes andmodifications may be made therein without departing from its spirit orscope as defined by the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A toe stiffener for shoes comprising a single sheet of materialhaving its wall portion normally relatively stiff and its roof normallyrelatively flexible.

2. A toe stifl'ener comprising a single sheet of fibrous sheet materialsaturated with a thermoplastic stiffening agent, there being arelatively large amount of stiffening agent in the wall portion of thestiffener and a relatively small amount in substantially its entire roofportion.

3. A toe stiflener comprising a single sheet of fibrous sheet materialtreated with a thermoplastic and rubber, there being a relatively largeamount of thermoplastic in its wall portion and a relatively smallamount of thermoplastic in substantially its entire roof portion.

4. A toe stiffener comprising a single sheet of normally stiff materialrelatively thick at its wall portion and relatively thin oversubstantially its entire roof portion.

5. A toe stiffener comprising a single sheet of thermoplastic saturatedmaterial having a relatively thick wall portion and which is relativelythin over its entire roof portion.

. 6. A toe stiffener comprising a single sheet of fibrous foundationmaterial saturated with a thermoplastic, said stiffener being relativelythick and normally stifi' about its Wall porstifi'ening agent, theamount of such stifi'en-,

ing agent being relatively large in the wall portions of said stiffenerand relatively smallin substantially its entire roof portion.

8; The step in the formation of a box toe stiffener which comprisesskiving over substantiallythe entire portion which is to form the roofof the box a blank previously treated with a thermoplastic stiffening aent whereby its normal stiffness at such roo is reduced.

9. That step in the formation of a box toe stifi'ener which comprisesskiving a normally stiff blank of sheet material about its margin andover substantially the entire portion which is to form the roof of thebox, whereby. the normal stiffness of such skived portions is reduced.

10. Steps in the formation of a box toe stifi'ener which comprisesaturating a piece of absorbent sheet material with thermoplasticmaterial, the saturant being deposited in layers of varyingconcentration, and removing from the central roof portion of a stiffenerblank a layer having greater than aver age concentration of saturant;

In testimony whereof I have aflixed my,

signature.

WILLIAM H. BAYNARD.

